Museums and galleries need more cash: is paid entry an answer?
Making locals pay has proved to be a dubious – and perhaps damaging - option for museums, says Gina Fairley, so what are the alternatives?
For the past financial quarter, the arts sector has been extremely vocal about how it is hurting. While some relief funding from the pandemic’s impact has come from government and philanthropists, the consensus is that it is far from adequate. There is little hope that support commensurate with the sector’s needs and contribution will come.
That leaves many asking how – from a very practical level – will organisations recoup lost income, and find the income to continue to deliver programming as we face a recession?
One answer is reducing resources – and the pointy end of that is staffing – while the soft end is simply ‘do more with less’. This inevitably leads to a sector that is already plagued by burn out and mental health issues.
The alternate answer is to find the money. Sure, easy! In a culture of efficiency dividends imposed on arts organisation over the past five years in particular, arts organisations have been encouraged to become less government reliant and to find a diverse mix of income streams and sustainability.
Sounds great in theory, but when the pool is small and all are competing for those alternate streams, it is tough. And, in a post-COVID environment where everyone’s 'belt has been tightened', there simply will be less cash around to prop up leaking arts companies.
This points to a third option, which has an almost archaic whiff about it, taking the sector to some dark distant period from which it had liberated itself. And that is to re-introduce paid entry to venues... Keep reading on ArtsHub
For the past financial quarter, the arts sector has been extremely vocal about how it is hurting. While some relief funding from the pandemic’s impact has come from government and philanthropists, the consensus is that it is far from adequate. There is little hope that support commensurate with the sector’s needs and contribution will come.
That leaves many asking how – from a very practical level – will organisations recoup lost income, and find the income to continue to deliver programming as we face a recession?
One answer is reducing resources – and the pointy end of that is staffing – while the soft end is simply ‘do more with less’. This inevitably leads to a sector that is already plagued by burn out and mental health issues.
The alternate answer is to find the money. Sure, easy! In a culture of efficiency dividends imposed on arts organisation over the past five years in particular, arts organisations have been encouraged to become less government reliant and to find a diverse mix of income streams and sustainability.
Sounds great in theory, but when the pool is small and all are competing for those alternate streams, it is tough. And, in a post-COVID environment where everyone’s 'belt has been tightened', there simply will be less cash around to prop up leaking arts companies.
This points to a third option, which has an almost archaic whiff about it, taking the sector to some dark distant period from which it had liberated itself. And that is to re-introduce paid entry to venues... Keep reading on ArtsHub